I think it takes a mum to understand her child. Daddy doesn’t understand Zara most of the time; even when she’s hugging his legs and saying “Hug Hug” he doesn’t know that Zara was offering him a hug, and when I told him about it, he would go wide eye and exclaim, “oh, was she saying that?” Men.. They are soooo DUH!

I could see Zara brightening up when we could understand what she was trying to ‘communicate’, and gets frustrated when she tried to tell us something, and we just couldn’t figure out what she was saying (I get frustrated too, not just her).

Here is a typical situation that happened during her bed time :
Me : *laid Zara down next to me* Zara, come, drink milk milk
Zara : *suckled for 5 seconds, let go of the breast, shook her head vigorously* Urrrgh!
Me : You don’t want already? So fast?
Zara : *shook her head vigorously, swayed her arms around* Urrrrgh!
Me : *scratched head* What do you want?
Zara : *did the ‘more’ sign by pointing her index finger to her palm , shook her head vigorously, swayed her arms around* Urrrggh!
Me : Oh! You want mummy to sing is it?
Zara : *smiled and do the ‘more’ sign*
Me : *started singing*
Zara : *latched on and started suckling*
(Shake the head vigorously and sway her arms around is her way of dancing; boy, she’s creating some really hard ‘sign’ to understand)

These are other ‘conversations’ that took place:

Morning
Before I went to work, I wanted to nurse her.
Me : *carried her* Zara, come and have milk milk
Zara : *suckled for 5 seconds, let go of the breast, pat her belly* Pao Pao! (Chinese: full)
Me : How can you be pao pao so fast? Drink more! *pressed her head back to breast*
Zara : *suckled for another 5 seconds, let go of the breast, pat her belly* Pao Pao!
Me : *looked at her* Sure you are pao pao? Don’t want any more?
Zara : *shook head*
Me : *put her back down on the floor* Ok then, what do you want to do now?
Zara : *walked towards her biscuit container* Bis-KGH, Bis-KGH! (Biscuit)
Me : *rolled eye*

Evening
I was feeding Zara papaya, she took a bite, then walked away to touch some other things; and then walked back to me when she’d swallowed the papaya in her mouth.
Zara : *did her ‘more’ sign*
Me : *fed her* Must chew chew huh? (Such a naggy mum I am)
Zara : *walked away, almost tripped on something* Ah Buk! *smiled, steady herself, walked on*
Me : *smiled* Yeah you mabuk (Malay: Drunk) already, walked like that.

Zara came face to face with a crow yesterday, and the crow was making “Ak Ak Ak” sound throughout. I explained to her that the bird bird says “Ak Ak Ak”; just like cats say “Ao”; dogs say “Wof Wof”.

While we were in the car, I started asking her, what should does this animal and that animal make and she seemed to be able to do a few sounds.

The cow, which is Moo
The dog, which is Woof woof
The cat, which is Aao (like the way she calls a cat)
The monkey, which is Ooo-Ooo Eh-eh-Eh
The elephant, which is … I mean you get it, I don’t even know how to spell the sound.

To listen to her making these sounds, click

She has also started to be able to call different people by their titles:

Ah Ku (my brother, the King) – as Ah Tu
Ah Kim (King’s Wife) – as Ah Tim
Ah Kong (my dad) – as Ah Kng
Ma-ma (my MIL) – as Ma-ma
Ku-Che (my SIL) – as Kng (a pause, then) Teh
Che-Che (my nieces) – as Teh Teh
Daddy – as Pa Pa
Kakak (which she already said long time ago) – as Tak Tak
Me – as …. *silence* Yes, this little girl still refused to call me!

I love these few shots of Zara. Despite Daddy’s Fear, I’ll still post them.

Zara was trying to fake a cry to get her way with something.
Zara was giving her favourite che-che (big sister), Sam a hug. This was taken during her birthday, when she wasn’t feeling very well, and she just wanted to ‘manja’ (get pampering from) her che-che.

Zara playing with Daddy, part of her nightly routine.
And the best of the lot, Zara giving me a kiss on the lips after lots of pleading from me.

Zara’s car seat is long overdue for an upgrade. Although she has not reached the weight limit of her infant carrier (9Kg), she has already exceeded the height limit (72cm) quite a few months back.

Even though we’d bought her a front facing car seat during the mega sales in August, we didn’t replace it immediately because the infant carrier is very portable (easy to install into my car on weekdays, and move to Daddy’s car on weekends) and has a canopy (good for transporting her in and out of the car during rainy days and shield her on sunny days) .

We set ourselves a target, when she turned One, we’ll do the upgrade. Finally, yesterday night, Daddy installed the new car seat into my car (after 30mins of struggling and some swearing).

This morning, when it was time to leave the house, I told Zara “Come on, lets go, we’re going to Ah Kim’s house already” She automatically wobbled towards her infant carrier and wanted to climb into it. We told her, “Zara now big girl already, che-che (big sister) already, no more baby, must sit in BIG car seat now”. It was like a ceremony, 3 of us (Daddy, maid, myself), fussed over her and placed her into her new car seat. And thank God she likes it, and didn’t complain.

Now, while driving to work, she’ll be seated behind me, instead of next to me (like she did when she was in her infant career). I can’t hold her hand or stroke her face while driving any more…. *sob sob*.

Just for the records, this is her in the Infant Carrier in August.
And today, the big girl has been upgraded to her spacious car seat.

Why do I feel as though I’m going to marry her off soon?? *Sensible me talking : I have to get a grip of myself!*

Today is Zara’s 1st Birthday! It has been such a pleasure having her around, and sometimes still seem a bit surreal when we look at her (after what we’d been through). Our daughter, our very own flesh and blood.

Although her birthday celebration didn’t really go that well for her, she’s still her normal self despite her tummy upset. When she gets better, we’d bring her out toy shopping (with her angpow money) and a good meal.

Here are her photos, and her mile stones month by month.

1st month

Since I didn’t have a confinement lady, I took care of her all by myself (no MIL or mum to help).
– Turned her head from left to right when she’s laid on her tummy (about 4th week).
– Smiled for the first time.

2nd month

– Could lift her head up while being carried, as well as while she’s put lying on her stomach.
– Stopped waking up for night feeds when she was 6 week old (aleluia!).
– Kicked at her baby gym
– Put her fist in her mouth to suck

3rd month
– cooed
– Sucked her thumb and upper lip (if we kept her thumb away from her)
– held things when placed in her hands
– clasped her hands

4th month

I went back to work (I took 3 months off). This same month, we moved to our new house in Shah Alam and she started having to be sent daily to King’s Wife’s place together with my maid.
– turned from lying to her back to her front
– used her hands to play with her baby gym

5th month

– laughed
– crawled (tummy on the floor)
– Passed item from one hand to another
– With her tongue between her lips, made the sound PBBBBTTTT
– Sucked on her toes
– Smacked her lips
– When we wanted to lift her up, she reached her hands out to us

6th month

– had her first taste of solid
– sat unsupported
– turned her wrist

7th month
– sat unsupported
– clapped her hands
– waved bye bye
– swam in a pool (with float of course)

8th monthThis was when I started her blog.
– cut her first tooth (in fact, 4 came out just about the same time)
– gave her first kiss, to a baby photo in a book
– stood while being supported (by holding on to something)
– cruised
– rubbed her eyes when she’s tired

9th month

– sat herself up
– pulled herself to standing position by holding on to a piece of furniture
-improved pincer grip

10th month

– spoke her first word
– took her first step

11th month

– climbed down furniture on her own
– stood unsupported

12th month

Weight : 7.79Kg (before she got her food poisoning, quite likely lighter now)
Height : 75cm
– cut 2 more teeth, and another one is peeking out from the gums
– spoke her first 3-syllable word
– said her name when she’s asked “What is your name?”

Here is how dining with Zara has evolved.

0 to 5th month
When we had dinner, we let her sit in her infant carrier with some interesting things to examine. She was happy.

5th to 6th month
She’d started solids, and able to sit supported.
When we had dinner, we put her in the high chair, one hand supporting her back, the other spooned food to our own mouth and hers.
We gave her something interesting to hold, she would bang the something on the table or chair noisily, and she was happy.

7th month
She’s able to sit on her own.
We just had to give her some sound making toys, or something extremely interesting to occupy her during dinner time. She would sit in the high chair making music by banging the items on the table or chair, or dropping them on the floor (to hear what sound they could make).
We had to take turns to eat, because feeding her, controlling the noise she was making (when other diners threw us glances) picking up the things she dropped was a full time job!

8th – 9th month
She started cruising.
She was not keen to sit still. If she had to, she would be dropping things on purpose, fretting to get out of the chair, or kept demanding for things beyond her reach (like the mobile phone, soya sauce bottle we placed out of her reach on purpose)!
We had to take turns to eat. Feeding her, picking up things she dropped, as well as pushing things further away from her reach was a very full time job and require a higher skill level(I wish I was an octupus)!

10th month
She started walking, and climbing.
Trying to keep her seated on the high chair is a big chore. She’s not that interested in her food, preferred to be on the floor walking. If we had to keep her in her chair, she would try to climb out of it, danger was not a concept she understood.
Definitely, there’s no way we could have a peaceful meal together. We had to take turns to bring her for walks, or if she still had not finished eating, we had to use 1 hand to force her down on her chair, and the other hand to spoon food into her mouth as well as push things out of her reach.

11th month
She started having a keen interest to participate during meal times.
She would sit in her chair, demands for her own set of cutlery (if none, she’ll just climb out of the chair skillfully and grab the nearest set), and then using the fork, spoon or chopstick she will reach for other people’s plate. She will also use her hand to grab rice from neighboring plates.
So, to prevent her for robbing people’s food, we let her have her own plate and spoon and put some rice in her plate. While we’re feeding her her actual food, she’ll pick up and push lumps of rice into her own mouth with her hand. Sometimes, even offering her food to us (which we have to pretend to eat or she’ll get crossed).
We could finally eat together again as a family. The after dinner mess however is another problem.

This is an exaggerated pic (not her), but it’s close to how she looks like after dinner… I wonder what is in store for us for the coming months.

Zara spoke her first 3 syllable word 2 weekends ago when I was reading her bath time counting book to her which has a page filled with butterflies.

She immitated when I said butterfly. Her version sounds something like “putter-pie”. Now, she kept mumbling the word putter-pie, as though to practice her talking skill.

She’s picked up quite a few words the past 2 weeks, like :
Kai Kai (go out) – tai tai
Walk Walk – woh woh
Park (Play ground)- Pak
Bath – But
Duck – Tuck Tuck
Mr Blue (her softtoy) – Boo
Car – Uhhhhh Uhhhh (with 1 arm raised and moving horizontally depicting a moving car)
Aeroplan – Uhhhhh Uhhhh (same as car, but she’ll be poining her finger upwards)
Daddy – Pa Pa
Zara – Sa-ah
Apple – Ah-Per
Full (??) – Ba-Ba

However, she’s still not calling me mummy, mama or anything yet. And sometimes still confuse me with herself. When I asked, “where’s Zara’s nose?”, she’ll point to mine; but when it’s “Where is che-che’s (Samantha’s) nose?”, she’ll point to Sam’s.

Maybe she thinks both of us are one entity, that’s why when I’m around, she still clings to me like a koala.

Zara turns 11mth today! Just like her 9th and 10th month summary, this is for her 11th month :
Her weight should be between 7.5-8kg (last we saw the PD she was about 7.4+kg, but she feels heavier now).
She’s 73.5cm tall.
Still with only 4 teeth.

Mobility :
Walking – She’s walking more and further (~5 to 6 feet) without support
Climbing – Able to climb up and down furniture (sofa, bed) with ease, however sometimes still get carried away and may loose her footing.
Standing – Standing a lot now, unsupported (not more than 30s)
Dancing – Started dancing when she hears familiar music or nursery rhymes, dances by stamping her feet (interchange), shakes her head, and rotates herself on the floor.

Language :
Understanding – understand cause and effect (if you want biscuit, drink water first); choices (you want this CD or this CD); recollection (don’t bite on the soap, remember it was very bitter?); where (where is Rusty? Where is mummy’s nose? Where is the fan? Etc)

Loves Reading, nursery rhymes with action and now started watching DVD, VCD on her own.

Speaking – her vocabulary has increased, besides these :
Mum-mum for asking for food
Foo for food
Teh for take
Poo for put
Pad for breast pad
Pa-Pai for Bye Bye
Paa-ber for bubbles, balloons, soap suds

Likes imitating what we say, however, refuses to say mummy or mama.

Hands coordination :
Likes pointing and pressing buttons (lifts, switches, key board).
Can pat her own mouth with her hand to make the ‘wa, wa, wa’ sound

Feeding / Food :
She’s having 3 solid meals a day now. Appetite is getting better, can have half a bowl of porridge on one go.
Still on 5 feeds of breast milk (~4oz), and snacks a lot on fruits and biscuits throughout the day.
Very fussy eater.

Emotions / Preferences :
Able to exert her preferences more, and express them.
E.g. “Do you want to drink water?” Shakes head violently (Don’t want)
“Do you want biscuit?” “Ugh!” with a smile (Want)

Not afraid of strangers, but picky with whom can touch and carry her.

Gives kisses to her favourite people right on the lips (mummy, and young children).

1 more month and she’ll be 1 years old, how time flies!

I worked from home yesterday because I have back to back meeting starting from 7am (starting work so early is a torture like asking me to die early early, don’t know how egghead does it).

In the evening, I asked Tuyam to chop some iceberg lettuce and abalone mushroom, and then used this to make porridge for Zara. I left her with the instructions and went back to work.

When dinner was served, I scooped out some of Zara’s porridge into her bowl (I prefer to feed Zara when I’m around instead of getting the maid to do it). I noticed instead of chopping up the lettuce or mushroom to real small (baby with 4 teeth) bite size, Tuyam has cut the lettuce to long strips, and the mushroom big chunks. Both are not easy to chew. How’s the little girl going to manage?

I asked Tuyam, what happened here? She said “tak cukup kecil ke (is it not small enough)?” I told her both are equally difficult to chew, they are not fish or carrots, so these fibrous or rubbery stuff should be chop real finely like we chop up garlic for stirfrying.

Anyway, I scooped smaller pieces of the chopped up vege and mushroom and started feeding Zara, and reminded her to chew.

She took a mouth full, chewed real hard. Started whining, “Errr..” Gave her another mouth, she took it, and whined further. When the 3rd spoon reached her mouth, she pursed her lips, refused to opened again, and just turned her head away from the spoon. This didn’t look like her usual shake-head-don’t-want-any-more reaction. Let me try again.

I dipped a pair of kitchen scissors into the porridge to try to cut the vege and mushroom into smaller pieces. Then offered it to her, she pursed her lip still, and looked the other way.

We told her, “Zara, you try first, mummy cut up everything smaller already“.
The lips are pursed, head to one side.
“Zara, please. You try first”
Still the lips are pursed, but she looked at me
“Zara, really, you look at the spoon, every thing small small already”
Lips still pursed, but she looked at the spoon
“See, mummy didn’t bluff you, you try first. Please”
Opened her mouth, took the porridge.

Aaah, she finally accepted the spoon. We continued to feed her, and she continued to eat it, until she was full, she started shaking her head to indicate she didn’t want any more.

So, our little critic has come out with her own way of giving different ratings to her food:
4 star : eat, and eat, and eat — food is really good, right consistency for me, thumbs up to the chef
3 star : eat, eat again, then turned head, pursed lip — food is good, but not right consistency for me (like this case), please do some thing to correct it.
2 star : eat for a while, then shake head — food is bearable, but enough is enough.
1 star : 1st bite already shake head — I hate this please feed this to the cat

Here’s a typical bed time routine Zara has:

9:00pm – wiped her hands and her feet, changed her into pajamas, some struggling on her side, not wanting to have the pajamas top and diaper on.
9:05pm – nursed her in bed
9:25pm – finished nursing
she sat up, not wanting to sleep and pointed a stack of books, said “boo! boo!”
Read the book Miss Spider’s Tea Party to her, put the book aside once done
9:28pm – she took the book, and sat back on my lap (indicating she wants more).
Read the book Miss Spider’s Tea Party to her again, put the book aside once done
9:30pm – she took the book, and sat back on my lap again.
Read the book Miss Spider’s Tea Party to her yet again (this time just read the text, no explanation done), she rubbed her eyes midway
9:32pm – laid her down in bed
Daddy walked in.
She sat up again; “Aah!” greeting daddy.
I asked him to tuck her to sleep, while I have my shower.
9:35pm – From the shower, I could hear Zara whining outside, the whining became more and more audible.
Toilet door opened, heard Daddy said, “See, mummy is still around, mummy is taking shower.” He slid open the shower screen, Zara’s little head peeked in.
“Hello, Little girl, what is it now?” I asked, water running down my face.
She gave me a big smile.
“Go, go and sleep” I told her.
Daddy carried her out, and I could hear her whining again.
9:45pm – Finished shower.
Daddy and her sitting on the bed, reading Miss Spider’s Tea Party (!!!)
“I just read that to her like 3 times!” I said
“Oh, I didn’t know” Daddy said. Obviously, he must have just picked up the first available book on the bed to read to her.
Little girl looked at me grinning, 4 teeth showing.
9:50pm – I finished changing.
Took over daddy’s shift, laid in bed with Zara, gave her a breast pad and said “go to sleep now.”
One hand holding the breast pad, thumb in the mouth, she tried to sleep.
I stroke her head and sang some lullaby to her.
9:55pm – She fell asleep.
10:00pm – moved her to her cot, gave her a peck on the cheek, said “good night, mummy loves you”.
She opened her eyes groggily for a second, and then drifted off to slumber land.

Question: Why is it so difficult for daddies to tuck their kids to sleep? Or is it just Zara’s daddy?